Monday, October 20, 2008

The babies have been so fun lately. It's so cute. I put them down on the floor in the morning to make them their cereal and I always catch them playing. Taylor would roll Luke over if she could. She always rolls right up next to him and he usually proceeds to touch her. He likes to touch her face and her hair. He'll also grab a hold of her clothes. They are starting to smile at one another more too. Cute. Taylor rolls and rolls and rolls until she can't anymore and then she screams. lol I look back at the pictures of Luke and Taylor and it's crazy how fast they've grown. Luke especially. At 5 months he's wearing 18 month clothes now. Taylor is in 6 month clothes. They both starting laughing when I tickle them. Such fun.

It's been a busy week. I turned 33 this past week and wow how my life has changed in the last year. It's amazing. Last year it was Nick and I and this year, we have a family of 4! It'll never be the same and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I'm excited about my birthday gifts...I haven't spent a whole lot of money on myself since the arrival of LT but I got some blessings from Nick and our family so I can spoil myself some. :)

I've been really hearing a lot from God on prayer lately. Seems like everything lately is teaching me about prayer. We had a small group at our pastors house and we talked about our prayer lives and what things hinder our prayer and how we can improve it. For me it's being distracted. My mind is all over the place. I've always been like that. I can never do one thing at a time or think one thing at a time. I pray throughout the day when things and people cross my mind. I've learned to pray immediately or I'll forget.

Hannah got me the book "90 Minutes in Heaven" and I've been reading it. I can't even begin to explain the story. Check out the link. This book is teaching me more about prayer and it's amazing power.

Nick and I have been trying to pray more together as well. We started praying for specific things for the babies. Our biggest prayer is that Luke and Taylor will love and follow the Lord. That they will honor and respect God and live for him. We've also been praying that the Lord blesses them with a spouse who will also share in their love for the Lord. Seem early? Well it's something that's very important to Nick and I and we know how important it is to have a marriage that is built on "the rock". There are other prayers I've had for their protection, health and their relationship as brother and sister but those two are main prayers we've been focusing on and we'll be praying those prayers for years to come, along with lots of others.

Prayer has been huge for Luke and Taylor. I often think back on my pregnancy and all the people who prayed for us. I see babies who have severe prematurity health issues and I'm amazed at how blessed we were. How I, as small as I am, carried two babies to 36 weeks, delivered them without a csection and they didn't even have stay in the NICU. It's just amazing. It's nothing I did. That's prayer and God. God pays extra attention to those we pray for and he cared for us. As uncomfortable as it was for me, I knew he wouldn't put me through more than I could take. He knew when those babies needed to be born and he answered lots of prayers.

One of the BIG questions I've gotten from teenagers: "If God has a will and he knows what is going to happen, then why bother praying?" This is why I love teenagers. They ask what adults struggle with...what adults are too afraid to ask out loud. I've had many answers to this question, depending on why it was asked, but the bottom line is...our prayer won't manipulate God's ultimate will. He also knows our motives. We are to pray for God's will to be done. So why pray for his will? Jesus told us to for one. (Matthew 6:10) I'm learning more and more that prayer isn't about getting what we want but about trusting God with all we have. It's about our relationship with Him. It's how we communicate with Him. How could we build a relationship with anyone or trust anyone without communication. I read about an illustration which gives a simple picture of how we can communicate with God. Say there is a maze and that maze represents life. We can only see from inside the maze and we have to make choices to go one way or another. God however is up above the maze we are in. He can see the way we should go, the choices we should make. Now, what if we could talk to God on a cell phone. What if God could lead us through that maze. Well, prayer is our cell phone call to God. He can help us make choices in this maze of life as long as we rely on him and listen to his directions. How can God speak to us? Through prayer and listening and through God's word, the bible. He's waiting for us to contact him. God wants us to surrender our every worry to him, and praise Him for our every joy. He wants us to pray to him out of our need for him as our father and not out of a need to please ourselves. He's not a wish granter, we can't bargain with him. His ways are higher than ours. He knows what we need more than we do. His will for everyone is that we love and obey him and grow more like Christ everyday. Part of that obedience comes by praying and trusting. We don't have to worry about how we pray, he wants to hear our hearts. He wants us to be humbled before him. God looks at the heart and there is no prayer too big or too small. He wants all of us.

This is one of my favorite verses because it's a promise that God will listen when we pray with all of our heart.

Jeremiah 29:11-1311 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.